


A Literal Snow Queen: unwritten stories in which Elsa is entirely snow

by barbara_princess_of_delphi



Series: Unique and Unusual Frozen Prompts/Headcanons: The Collection (non-AU) [10]
Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-05-30 04:32:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15089051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barbara_princess_of_delphi/pseuds/barbara_princess_of_delphi
Summary: Inspired by the previous LOTR AU: Canon and non-canon ideas for an Elsa made of snow rather than flesh.





	A Literal Snow Queen: unwritten stories in which Elsa is entirely snow

Snow Queen Elsa idea: after being beheaded, Elsa’s powers created a snow-body for her to simulate her original body and keep her brain oxygenated. Elsa’s body contains “blood vessels” where people have them but what flows through them is pure ice-cold water. She also menstruates water instead of blood every month and ovulates eggs made of clear ice (which may or may not be fertilizable by normal human sperm… and if they are, would grow into a half-snow, half-organic baby)

OR:

Same as canon except that Elsa’s secret isn’t just her powers, it’s also that her whole body from the neck down is made of actual snow/ice, an exact replica of an ordinary human body down to the smallest internal detail. During her childhood, Elsa looked human, but as she grew through puberty her powerful magic took over and slowly re-made her body from the inside, taking over her biology, turning all her organs into snow replicas that only work because of, well, magic. The heart that beats in her is the same shape as a human heart, but it’s animated snow which pumps clear water through the hollow tubes in her body that are located where a normal person’s blood vessels would be. Her lungs are hollow ice-crystal chambers, filled with air each time she takes a breath. The oxygen goes into her watery “blood” and circulates to her brain, which somehow functions despite the cold. Her stomach digests food like anyone else’s, except it’s made of snow instead of normal flesh and muscle. For some reason, her poop is always bright white frozen slush, no matter what colors might have been in the food she eats. (In Elsa’s version of diarrhea, her poop just comes out more “melted” than usual. When she got stomach flu as a kid and it was coming out both ends, the vomiting was worse than the diarrhea, because her poop was clean and not smelly, whereas her vomit was the partially-digested stuff she ate.) A few days every month, she menstruates pure water, thawed from the frozen lining of her womb, and in between she ovulates eggs made of clear ice. (This “period water” may or may not have some healing properties, or other magic to it, because it is her actual blood.) Her breasts have functioning nipples, which when suckled yield ice-cold sugar water.

In the movie-canon version of this story, when Anna (a normal human) pulls Elsa’s glove off at the coronation, everyone is shocked to see Elsa’s hand gleaming like ice, even whiter than her already-pale-but-still-human face. That exposure contributes to making Elsa so nervous that she lets her power slip by accident (when she flings her hand, the ends of her snow-fingers disintegrate into bits of snow which tumble to the ground and sprout icicles on the spot). Elsa then flees, her snow-hand regenerating on its own. 

Anna is as shocked as everyone else, since she only remembers Elsa as a kid, back when she still looked fully human. In this era before X-rays, no one knew that Elsa’s insides were already turning to ice even back then, and by the time the changes fully manifested through to Elsa’s outer skin, their parents’ shipwreck had already happened and it was too late to change heirs for the kingdom.

In the ice palace, Elsa gets grazed on the cheek by an arrow from the Duke’s men, and the world discovers that instead of bleeding, she leaks clear water… and instead of clotting, her wounds freeze and fill themselves in. She still feels as much as anyone else when tripping and falling, though – her snow anatomy is no less sensitive than flesh.

After the movie, when Anna hugs Elsa, it feels exactly like hugging a snowman. Somehow despite Elsa’s powers thawing with love, Elsa’s own body never thaws, nor freezes solid – it just stays at that perfect slightly-crunchy-snow texture that Anna loves, without her even trying. (But when they make love, Elsa’s vaginal walls do melt a little and become slippery, just like anyone else’s.)

With her secret now public, Elsa reigns as the literal “Snow” Queen. With foreign dignitaries and anyone else capable of traveling to Arendelle all lining up to shake her snow-hand in person, Elsa cleverly makes extra money for Arendelle by making herself a tourist attraction and charging admission. The monthly parties in Elsa’s castle showcasing her magic (and herself) become a huge hit and draw a global audience in subsequent years, as news spreads with the trade winds.

(Other potential settings: modern-AU (concealing from the world with gloves and such), superhero-AU (given possible rapid healing), LOTR-AU (my original inspiration for this whole “snow Elsa” idea), “Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children” crossover, medical drama (how would Dr. House handle a patient like Elsa?), “Short Circuit” (Elsa fighting for human rights as a not-quite-human), lots of others...)

(This could lead to an assassination attempt which misses and accidentally hits Anna instead, then Elsa turns to dark magic out of desperation to save Anna)

**Author's Note:**

> This particular headcanon gave me some ideas 4 years ago - I started a fanfic based on the modern-AU branch of it (see the next part of this collection). Sadly, I'm out of further ideas, so please feel free to write based on any of the suggestions above (modern AU or other AU's).


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